I have reviewed hundreds of cars, trucks, SUVs, crossovers, minivans and motorcycles for a wide assortment of magazines and websites. If it's got wheels and an engine, I want to drive it or ride it, and then write about it. I'm fascinated by transportation, and by what our means of transportation says about who we are. I have lived all over the place, but I've settled in Southern California for the great roads.

2013 Toyota RAV4 EV Test Drive and Review - Electric and Effective

There may be an electric vehicle in your future, maybe in the very near future. The technology is moving very quickly, as auto manufacturers rush to meet the strictures of the California Environmental Protection Agency Air Resources Board’s (CARB) zero-emissions vehicle program. Toyota checks in with its latest electric vehicle, and it’s an SUV: The 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV. I got a chance to drive a few preproduction examples of the RAV4 EV, 2,600 of which will arrive on select California dealer’s lots with a list price of $49,800 — after government incentives and tax breaks, an effective $40,000.

The RAV4 EV is the result of a partnership between Toyota and electric car maker Tesla. Actually, it’s the result of a relationship between Toyota Motor Corporation’s President Akio Toyoda and Tesla’s Chairman, Product Architect and CEO, Elon Musk. The two men met in May of 2010 and decided that their two companies should develop an electric vehicle together, then tossed their engineering and product development staffs into the pool. The first thing the engineers came up with was a new acronym, E-FAST, which stands for “Early Field and Suitability Testing” — that’s what engineers do, create acronyms. In order to fast track the collaboration, they decided to use the existing RAV4 platform, rather than developing a new vehicle from scratch. Toyota engineers took the lead. The end result is an all-electric SUV with a motor based on the system in the Tesla Model S sedan. If that sounds simple, don’t be fooled — it is an amazing feat of engineering and collaboration, especially in such a short period of time.

The RAV4 EV looks very much like a gasoline-powered RAV4, with some cool revisions. The EV gets a new front grille; some new badging; revised, more aerodynamic mirrors; a deeper roof spoiler; LED lowbeam headlights and daytime running lamps (DRL); LED taillamps and a sleek, aerodynamic underbody, among other exterior changes. Each change is designed to improve air flow or reduce power consumption, and the subtle sum total is a RAV4 that looks much more contemporary and sleek. I wonder if any of these mods will migrate to the gas RAV4?

The RAV4 EV will be available in a limited color palette of four bland exterior colors: White, Pearl White, Steel Blue and Grey. No Electric Banana Yellow RAV4 EVs to be had — yet.

RAV4 EV gets a new eco-friendly cloth interior, with a very modern-looking pattern that looks like something you’d find in a Mazda vehicle (that’s a compliment). Both front seats are electrically heated, which seems like a luxury feature, but is actually another eco feature, according to Toyota. It takes a lot of energy to warm the air in the RAV4′s cabin, and it takes a while, too. You get a much quicker sense of warmth and comfort from heated seats, and for a fraction of the energy cost. The RAV4′s HVAC system is smart enough to read the cabin temperature and automatically turn on the seat heaters with the heater motor. There’s no corresponding action for cooling, but there are two energy-saving modes for the air conditioning system. Unless you’re in a desert climate, the ECO modes will probably serve to keep you comfortable, while conserving energy.

The driver interface, instrument panel, gear selector and information screens on the EV have been changed from the gas version. The IP is a thin-film transistor (TFT) screen, and it delivers a lot of information to the driver in easy to digest chunks. A big 8″ color display dominates the top of the center stack, carrying navigation, audio, communications and vehicle settings information. Many of the traditional control knobs and buttons, especially for audio, have been eliminated, with their functions nested within the touch screen display. I’d have to live with this for a while before I became totally comfortable with its operation — sometimes it’s nice to have a knob on the dash that’s dedicated to turning down the radio volume or searching for a station. The center stack controls that remain have been rewired to touch controls. The whole effect is clean, crisp and relatively high tech.

RAV4 EV’s gear selector will be very familiar to Prius drivers. An unconventional joystick, the selector is located in the traditional center console position. A pushbutton electronic parking brake sits just aft of the joystick. The electric motor is capable of delivering 154 hp and 218 lb-ft in Normal mode, which is good for a top speed of 85 mph. A button in the center stack allows the driver to engage and disengage Sport mode, which gives access to the motor’s full range of torque, up to 273 lb-ft, and a top speed of 100 mph. The EV defaults back to Normal mode each time it is turned off. Engaging Sport mode changes the background color of the TFT display to red from the Normal mode’s relaxing blue background. It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that driving around in Sport mode and accessing maximum torque at every opportunity will significantly diminish battery charge.

Electric vehicles can be a lot of fun to drive, with their instant torque and eerily silent operation. RAV4 EV is super fun, especially when compared to the gasoline version. The EV has a lower center of gravity because of where the batteries are mounted, and it leaps off the line with enough power to spin the rubber on its front wheels until the nanny from the traction control computer kicks in.

The good news about the RAV4 EV is that it is a very good SUV that just happens to be powered by electricity. There’s no sacrifice in terms of utility or ease of use. You don’t need to do anything special to drive the EV effectively — just drive. And that’s a good thing.

While you can drive a RAV4 EV just like a gas-only RAV4, you can’t refuel with the same ease. It takes at least 5 hours to fully charge the RAV4 EV, and that’s when hooked up to a 40 amp/240 volt power source. Connected to common, 12 amp/120 volt household current, it can take 44 hours or longer to charge. Toyota hopes that RAV4 EV buyers will spring for a dedicated charging station, which will be available at an installed price of around $1,500 from Leviton.

Then there’s the issue of range. Toyota hinted at a driving range of 100 miles or more from a standard charge. For many drivers, that might be plenty. With diligent charging and power management, 100 miles is a great range for an around-town commuter car. Toyota is unleashing a barrage of power management tools with the EV, including smartphone apps and onboard charging schedule reminders. Still, an electric SUV might not be right for everybody. My wife, for instance, has difficulty keeping her cellphone charged. I don’t know how she’d manage an SUV.

Price is another challenge. Toyota has chosen to sell RAV4 EVs, as opposed to leasing, which is Honda’s strategy with the Fit EV. Even with the incentives and tax breaks, a $49,800 RAV4 EV will take a long time to pay back its investment, especially when a gas-only 2012 RAV4 starts at $22,650.

The 2013 Toyota RAV4 EV is a remarkable feat of engineering and collaboration between companies. It ups the ante for the early adopters, trumping the Prius crowd in the eco competition. I hope that all 2,600 RAV4 EVs sell quickly so that we can get to the next round of development — a truly affordable and practical battery-powered SUV. The RAV4 EV is an important step in the right direction.

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Its not going to work but I am glad to see Toyota take this brave step forward. The price point that will lure in gassers in is a $350/mo zero down lease. At that number you can have all the buyers you can stand. And the charge tolerance would be 8 hour @110v for a 50 mile range. And it would be awsome if a 1 hour 110v charge from nearly depleated somehow returned 30% charge or 15mile range.

The part where the article says “at least 5 hours to charge” is not correct. This is a common complaint I have that every EV related article gets wrong. It depends on how depleted the battery is. Just like people don’t always pull into a gas station while running on fumes, people don’t always recharge their EV when it is completely dead. For example, my Nissan Leaf is supposed to take 7 hours to recharge. But on a typical day it takes about 1 hour because I plug it in every day as soon as I get home from work.

The time it takes to charge up an EV depends on 3 things: 1) The type of charger being used. 2) How full/empty the battery is already. 3) How big the battery is.

And so without more information on these things it is very hard to give somebody an answer on recharging times. It could be as little as 5 minutes, or as much as 20 hours depending on a combination of these factors.

Great to see another all electric hit the market and the one factor that is not brought up in the article is that gas prices are literally killing small business and individuals– with this car you will pay NOTHING for gas and that surely will accelerate the payback time added to the fact the electric cars require NO maintenance other than things like tires– electric engines last forever and we are not even adding in all the toxic benzene you will not be breathing in as you do EVERY TIME you fuel up your gas powered car- Benzene is an extreme carcinogen… CO2 does not cause global warming so I won’t get into that but from the launch electric cars are 85 percent or more fuel efficient as almost all of the energy goes into pushing the car–however gas powered cars are barely 20% fuel efficient as 80 percent or so is lost in the form of heat– you end up with an electric car that is equivilant to paying about 12 cents a gallon on gas…. Add to that the fact that most cars will be recharged overnight with electricity that mostly is just lost on the grid– you end up with a net national saving son total energy consumed. If we switched over everyone to electric cars we would be a net national exporter of oil…. The problem with this car is the price is way too high but anyone that can afford it should buy it- they also need to increase the range to at least 250 miles per charge- it can be done we can use hydrogen tanks(about the size of two divers tanks people put on their backs to go deep sea diving and get the range up to over 550 miles per charge and make them rapid file so you can basically have gas stations that make their own hydrogen over night with electricity that is normally just lost entirely(we could mandate this power be given at low low rates) and the US could become a net hydrogen exporter. Coal plants are pumping mercury into the air and water we already are producing more than the total needs of electricity from wind mills alone in the Pacific Northwest– we can do this nationwide and retake our lost mercury poisoned water and air and have a super clean nation–and become super wealthy with all natural solar and wind combined with hydrogen(hydrogen is a great way to store and transport power and can convert boundless sources of energy like the Sun and wind into easily transportable energy to run cars and trucks– fuel houses and buildings with nearly zero loss from transport).

I drove this car and I loved it! However, the price quoted was just under $60K. This was a far cry from the expected $49K. I really want one, but I am wondering if waiting will produce a better $ value.

I have solar photovoltaic installed on my home designed with capacity to handle charging an electric vehicle. The Rav4 EV’s range is totally acceptable to my needs.

There is another disappointment for me, the limited available external paint colors. I want a RED one and that is not an option. I had the same problem when I got my Prius Plug-In. I love everything about the Prius Plug-In except the color. I wanted RED and settled for less.

Even though the color seems trivial, I think I may wait for RED.

Kudos to Toyota and Tesla for building such an amazing, trend-setting EV.